Causes of corruption in the MENA region: a cross-national comparative study

Abstract

With the growing political and scientific attention given to the MENA region in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings, this study analyzed a key dimension in the context of such political upheavals. Corruption has presented a main drive for the Arab Spring, where there is general consensus that grand and petty corruption are widespread among the countries of the region. In this concern, this research intends to fill the gap regarding corruption studies in the MENA region, looking at the root causes of corruption in 15 Arab countries, where studies on the nature and extent of corruption in the region are limited. This is due to the lack of reliable data on corruption related issues within these countries and the high restrictions on accessing information on such topic. Therefore, this piece of research presents a contribution to the literature on the MENA studies with a special focus on the causes of corruption. In this sense, the study addresses the causes of corruption in the MENA region countries through a systematic cross-national comparative analysis. 15 Arab countries in the region are analyzed on a case-by-case basis, relying on the structured focused comparative method and the Most Similar Systems Design to better comprehend the distinct causes of corruption in the countries. Therefore, the countries were divided into three sub-regions (Gulf region, North Africa, and Mashreq plus Yemen) to enable focused analysis and comparison within these groups. This study relied on 10 independent political, economic and societal variables - which showed strong agreement among scholars to explain corruption, in order to analyze the causal relationship between corruption and the different political and socio-economic dimensions within the countries, during the period from 1999 until 2010. This research concluded that, the main variables that exposed robustness in impacting the intensity of corruption among all the cases are the rule of law, quality of regulations and trade openness. Poverty rates and income inequality have been clear triggers for petty corruption to flourish among many cases. However, natural resources endowments have shown less impact on the levels of corruption in the countries under study. Women’s empowerment did not reach strong findings. Still, the general discrimination against women, minorities, religious sects, indigenous groups, immigrants, non-nationals, opposition parties and other groups has revealed a clear absence of social equality among the masses where favoritism and polarization have obviously taken place among all cases. Also, literacy rates turned out to have an irrelevant relationship with corruption, but the quality of education exposed a negative causal relationship with corruption. Adding to this, the human development is negatively associated with corruption.